Serie A should be a cracking watch this coming season, International have certainly improved so far, Juve look like being a force still, and Roma and Lazio still have the same squads that did so well last season.

If A.C. can use some of the new money that they have got coming in, then we really could have a tight race at the top.

Don't forget Napoli too batdude, they still have very good players in their team.

I still think Juventus will win the league comfortably but will be an interesting battle between Roma, Napoli, Inter, Lazio and possibly AC Milan for the two other Champions League spots.

The way the coefficients are going, Italy will have four in the champions league soon and England will drop to three.

agreed. apparently not being in europe gives inter a extra years leeway in FFP, thus they can get big names in now and worry later it looks like. athlough no doubt they will have to sell 1 of the big boys be it kovacic,handanvic or icardi.

would like milan to be back as a force too, jsut makes serie a more star studded.

think next year will be first close title race in years,still expect juve to win though but if pogba,pirlo and vidal are ALL gone, it might not be a totally smooth transition imo(even if likes of khedira are brilliant replacements)

Expect them to keep hold of Pogba and Vidal for at least another season now. Pirlo looks like he's probably off and Tevez is as big of a loss IMO (seems all but done that he's leaving). Juventus lacked a top striker for quite a while and Tevez coming in was the big boost they needed to take the team that extra bit further. Decent chance Llorente is off with Mandzukic now signed, Dybala will be the big signing for them that should fill the absence of Tevez though.

Fancy Juve to be too strong next season. They're a quality team as it is and most of their main challengers have a few question marks over themselves going into the new season as it stands. We'll see though, still time for quite a few more signings and changes which can easily change things. Outside of Juve running away with the title last season I thought it was a brilliant season for the most part and honestly expect next season to be even better with the Milan sides possibly back in the mix.

yeah,the milan sides being forces again will definetley spice things up. roma are cosnsitently good nowadays.

lazio juggling champions league might become a factor though.(if they make it past qualifiers)

This is as bit early is it not, the feller is only just starting his career!

https://www.energica.no/_biografier-...-9788283040388

Seems like it is official now, Tevez has left Juve to join Boca in Argentina.

https://twitter.com/br_uk/status/614595735288418304

Phil Neville is the new assistant manager at Valencia, his partnership with the owner, and their mutual partnership at Salford probably played a big part in him getting that job.

Bielsa quits Marseille after they lose their opening game:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/33839501

Very strange decision, I wonder where he will end up next?

That's very very selfish

No stalking in the European and World Football Thread, thanks.

Loulou Micollin, the somewhat 'flamboyant' owner of Montpellier (who fired Bielsa last season) - v funny if you understand french http://www.20minutes.fr/sport/footba...ielsa-tete-con
if not, basically he says Bielsa is an a***hole who doesn't look you in the eye (you can make love any way you like he says, but you look a man in the eye). Coming from LM, this could be seen as a compliment by Bielsa.
I'll miss him - apologies if this has been posted before, but it's Bielsa's speech to his players after they were unjustly beaten. As many of them are french, no idea how many understood any of it! The English is in text below the vid
https://youtu.be/IuOKC9I0IvQ

apologies, my understand of the french conditional tense is dodgy - Nicollin said he 'would have' fired Bielsa last season. He was never at Montpellier...sorry.

Superb result for Ernesto Valverde's Bilbao tonight!! (Personally I think he'll be at one of the really big European clubs in a couple of years)

4-0 over Barcelona is a great result, but what's with the timing? Barca have had to play two games in three days and travel back from Baku.

kovacic to madrid

will be a great player but i guess if inter use money on perisic and contreao then the team is pretty much set for top 3 challenge

Serie A season is underway, Verona/Roma kick off the season. 20 minutes in, BT Sport 2 for people in the UK or other methods.

Dzeko, Salah and Szczesny all making their league debuts for Roma. Lazio/Bologna on later tonight.

Juventus lose 1-0 at home to Udinese in their opener

Barcelona will probably win the league again this year based on that Real Madrid performance.

I didn't think they played too badly, lots of speed and energy and 25 shots on goal, just couldn't put one away...

The balance in the first half was all wrong. No transition from defence to attack.

Ocampos just scored a screamer for OM. Bicycle kick, amazing goal!!!

Interesting opening weekend in Spain and Italy.

Firstly Spain, neither Athletico Madrid, Barca or Real looked convincing at all. Still think Barca will win the league and it will be interesting to see how long it is before Rafa gets sacked!

As for Italy, I noticed when I saw the Juve line up that they didn't look anywhere near as strong since losing Tevez, Vidal & Pirlo. Early days of course but the title race could be quite close this season and there are a fair amount of teams who could be in it. Napoli have a very good team but lost the first game. AC & Inter have both invested in the squad as have AS Roma. Lazio could be contenders too!

Benitez will be out by Christmas. Bizarre appointment and disaster waiting to happen. Its hard to fathom how his Napoli record was deemed to be good enough to give him the Real job.

Not Benitez's biggest fan, but give him a chance. It's one game only, having said that I expect Barcelona to win it comfortably again this year as long as Enrique doesn't continue to rotate like mad. They missed Neymar and even Pedro & Xavi last night, Rafinha is average, but Enrique likes him. Once January is here, if they are ahead of Real Madrid they should have it wrapped up.

Two wins out of two for Dortmund as well, let's hope they can challenge Bayern again!!

Allegri played an odd team imo. He should've picked Dybala and Sturaro. Unconvinced by Pogba at no 10 as well but it's early days. Bonucci taking the freekicks is insane.
I don't actually think Juve will win it this year but hope I'm wrong.